April 25, 2014

An Arbor Day song

This afternoon while on our front deck I could hear a captivating humming sound, soft and melodious, that seemed to be drifting down on the breeze. When I looked up I could see that one of my favorite trees, a huge old Box Elder that provides summer shade across the whole front of the house is now in full bloom and the sound was coming from there. It was an Arbor Day song sung by the wings of hundreds of honey bees that were visiting the blossoms of the big old tree.

I took several pictures of one of the blossoms but was not happy with them and so tonight I tried this one in the dark.

I find it hard to photograph high up in trees, (flowers or birds), as more often than not, the bright sun turns them into a silhouette with no detail. Great idea to try again at night. You did very well.

Beautiful! Box elder was the first tree I ever planted, when I was about 8 years old. I had the same problem getting a photo of its flowers that I liked last week. I never knew that bees enjoyed them so much. That’s great!

This one is a treasure. It shades the south side of the house in summer, but it’s bare winter branches let the sun through. I think the bees are there because so far there isn’t much of a volume of flowers yet.

Thanks Tammie.
I admired your photo of the grass flower but for the life of me I can’t identify it. It’s very pretty! I looked through about a hundred grass species on the Burke Museum site, but unfortunately, there are few good photos of grasses in bloom.

This is a spectacular photo. I have a friend who ranches outside Kalispell. He has a large box elder in the middle of a paddock, and I love watching it change through the seasons. I’m sending him this photo – he does some photography, too, so I know he’ll appreciate the technical side of it as well as its beauty.

Thanks! I hope your friend enjoys the photo. The box elder is a very visual tree, with its beautiful light green in the spring, dark green in summer and beautiful gold in the fall. We cherish the shade in late summer!

It was a hand-held shot. My camera automatically used 1/60 second for flash setting. Seems to work. The blossom was about 10 feet from the ground and I shot it by standing on the rail of our deck. (You do what you gotta do!)